Outdoors

Paul A. Smith | Outdoors Editor

Burlington man shoots to promote shotgun sports

The face and name in booth 1722 at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports Show is familiar to the Wisconsin trap shooting community.

But keeping current with Tom Wondrash's title has been as challenging as staying in front of a crossing skeet target.

Such is life for a rapidly rising figure in the world of American shotgun sports.

Even his employer is still working on updating Wondrash's business card.

The front table at the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation booth had a stack that said "Tom Wondrash, Director of Development, North Central Region."

That is so last month.

Wondrash, of Burlington, was recently named national director of the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP).

Though he travels the country managing programs, participants and employees, Wondrash set his schedule to be in southeastern Wisconsin this week to promote the SCTP at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports Show.

The SCTP is the official youth shooting program of USA Shooting and a feeder program to the Olympic shooting sports. It has divisions for rookie (fifth graders and below, state law permitting), intermediate (grades six to eight), senior (grades nine to 12) and collegiate students.

It offers competitions in the American disciplines of trap, skeet and sporting clays and the Olympic sports of bunker trap, doubles trap and international skeet.

The SCTP was started in 2000 by the National Shooting Sports Foundation; it is now governed by the nonprofit Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc.

According to its mission statement, the SCTP "is a youth development program that teaches the safe handling of firearms while at the same time developing positive life skills through the shotgun clay target sports."

It acknowledges competition is part of the programs, "but 'win-at-all-costs' philosophy has no place in the SCTP.

"Striving to win while playing by the rules does," according to the SCTP. "Honoring the game, exhibiting good sportsmanship and being a responsible team member are the bedrock values the SCTP strives to instill. It is the duty of everyone involved in the SCTP - coaches, parents and athletes - to set good examples for SCTP team members. Volunteers are expected to emulate and uphold high moral and ethical standards of personal conduct."

The use of firearms demands such standards, said Wondrash, 47. The safety message is repeated each time the students handle a shotgun.

More than 19 million Americans participate in shooting sports, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

The popularity is lost on many in America.

Trap and skeet are Olympic sports. Football and baseball are not.

"The thing that I really like about shooting is the discipline and maturity it teaches," said Wondrash, who holds coaching certifications from the Amateur Trapshooting Association and the National Rifle Association. "And you don't necessarily have to be tall or fast. It allows kids to excel in something other than the typical sports."

The SCTP began in 2000 with a handful of schools. It has spread to 44 states.

The growth is a combination of a successful strategic plan and the inherent enjoyment of clay target shooting, Wondrash said.

"There's an excitement and fulfillment to learning to shoot in a safe environment," Wondrash said.

According to SCTP officials, the program enrolled 7,688 shooters in 44 states in 2011 (the last year for which full-year data are available), a 48% increase in shooters and a 25% increase in states participating in 2010.

In Wisconsin, about 1,000 shooters from 30 clubs and schools participated in SCTP, Wondrash said. Wisconsin ranked third nationally in SCTP participation. Iowa was first with about 1,300 shooters.

Several former SCTP participants have gone on to compete at the international level and are members of the USA Shooting Team, including Olympic gold medalist Vince Hancock.

Wondrash has been part of the SCTP growth curve since 2004, when he helped form the Burlington High School Demons trapshooting team.

Once the local school board approved the idea, he volunteered his time as coach and helped secure a venue at the Burlington Conservation Club.

The Demons took second in the nation in their inaugural season and have won dozens of tournaments and one national championship in the last seven years.

National trapshooting officials noticed and tabbed Wondrash as a regional director of development for SCTP in 2011.

Wondrash went to work applying the Burlington template to other programs in the Midwest. The region now comprises 60% of national SCTP participation.

In his new role as national director, he is responsible for all SCTP operations, including recruiting efforts, education programs and competitions.

"Tom brings many years of successful team and athlete development to his new position," said SSSF executive director Dan Hathaway. "Tom will join our senior management team and we're very pleased to have him on board."

Wondrash shakes his head as he reflects on the events since he helped form the Burlington team.

"If you would have told me seven or eight years ago that I could be the national director of this great program I would have laughed," Wondrash said. "This is a dream job, being able to help people start new programs and get even more of our youth involved with the shooting sports."

Wondrash said his goals are to increase participation to more than 10,000 this year and to 20,000 "in just the next couple years."

If the recent past is any predictor of the future, he'll not only meet those goals - he'll need some new business cards, too.